As much "kit" as Vex might be, it is still very customizable. Here shortly "Scofus" will be putting up pics of the bots we have been creating out of a single Vex kit. If you are interested in competitions for smaller and lighter robots, this year at the IRI there will be an entire Vex competition playing a completely new game designed by myself and Scott Ray. All the info is posted here:
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=38627
It is the first ever open to the public Vex competition and like you said, its smaller, cheaper, and a lot more manageable.